A friend holds a photograph of Ethan Bespflug, 17, who died after being stabbed on a transit bus last week, during a vigil in Surrey, B.C., on April 18.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
People charged with a violent crime while already under bail conditions for other matters are released to await trial in a large majority of cases in British Columbia, new statistics released on Monday by the province’s Prosecution Service show.
Judges rejected pretrial detention in crimes of violence when the accused was already on bail in about 75 per cent of cases, according to a review of bail hearings over a span of seven weeks.
The mayor of one city struggling with the actions of a few prolific offenders said judges and prosecutors can’t fix this problem on their own.
“The judges are applying the law as it exists,” said Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog in an interview. “The law needs to be changed. It diminishes public safety and destroys public confidence in the justice system. This needs to be fixed, yesterday.”
In response to growing alarm about prolific offenders and random – sometimes deadly – assaults, the province has pushed for more restrictive bail decisions. That effort has been blunted by provisions in the Criminal Code that require the release of detainees at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous conditions.
The B.C. Attorney-General issued a directive in November urging Crown prosecutors to oppose bail in cases where public safety is deemed to be at risk. The BC Prosecution Service said on Monday there is not enough data to determine whether the directive has resulted in reducing bail for repeat offenders.
However, in the seven weeks in late 2022 and early 2023 where results were tracked, the data shows Crown Counsel asked for pretrial detention in roughly half the bail hearings they conducted for crimes of violence involving an accused who was already on bail.
A spokesperson for the courts of British Columbia declined to comment.
Elenore Sturko, opposition justice critic for BC United, said the new statistics are “extremely concerning,” and she called for an independent investigation in the low rates of pretrial custody, or remand, for cases involving violence and repeat offences.
“When we have someone charged with a violent crime, with a history of violating bail conditions, this is the exact situation where we would be asking the prosecution to look for that person to be held in remand. But they are only asking for it half the time,” she said in an interview.
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In a statement from the BC Prosecution Service, spokesman Daniel McLaughlin noted that the changes to the bail policy for Crown lawyers in November did not change the rules around bail in the Criminal Code. “It would be unreasonable to assume that a BCPS policy change alone could produce any particular outcome at a bail hearing,” he wrote. “Crown counsel are still bound by the governing federal law under the Criminal Code.”
Section 11 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that those charged with an offence have the right not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause. A 2017 Supreme Court of Canada judgment called that provision “an essential element of an enlightened criminal justice system” that safeguards the liberty of accused persons.
In response to that ruling, the federal government introduced an amendment to the Criminal Code in 2019 that codified a “principle of restraint” regarding pretrial custody.
Now, at the urging of premiers, federal Justice Minister David Lametti has promised to look at “targeted reforms” to the Criminal Code that would update Canada’s bail system.
On Friday, provincial and territorial premiers met with Canada’s police chiefs to respond to a recent string of high-profile attacks in cities across the country, where they emerged with another, united call for urgent bail reform.
A 17-year-old boy was stabbed and killed while riding a bus in Surrey, B.C., on April 11, while a string of passengers on Toronto’s public transit have been targets of mostly random, violent attacks.
Eight on-duty police officers have been killed in the past seven months, including rookie Constable Greg Pierzchala of the Ontario Provincial Police, who died in late December. Court documents show that one of the two people facing a first-degree murder charge in Constable Pierzchala’s death was initially denied bail in a separate case involving assault and weapons, but was later released even though the judge conducting the bail hearing acknowledged that it was “a very iffy case.”
Justine Hunter